News

September 14, 2009

Arnold Teacher Scores $100,000 Lottery Prize

The school year started off with a bang for an Arnold teacher when he realized he had won the top prize on a Missouri Lottery “Cash Explosion” Scratchers ticket. Michael Nash, 62, spent a long Labor Day weekend waiting to claim his $100,000 prize at the Lottery’s St. Louis regional office.

Nash’s winning story began after church on Sunday morning when he stopped to purchase two $5 Scratchers tickets, winning $15. He used the $5 profit to buy a “Cash Explosion” ticket because he thought “it hadn’t hit in the area.”

“It was amazing,” he said. “The star (on the ticket) said ‘Win All,’ and they were all $5,000. I said, ‘Ooh, that’s a comma – not a period!’”

“The clerk said, ‘Are you okay? Your face is just pale.’”

Nash, a language arts teacher in the Fox C-6 school system in Arnold, recovered from his shock and returned to school following the holiday weekend, asking his principal if he could leave during his seventh hour conference period to go claim his prize.

Nash said his students “all wanted to know what I was going to do with the money.” His response reinforced the importance of paying off student loans and other bills.

“I’m hoping to have some left over after that,” he continued, “to give some to my dad and to my church (St. David’s Catholic Church in Arnold).”